#Babadook #HollywoodAustralianFilmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas #Rating: * * *

#Best #Babadook #HollywoodAustralianFilmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas #Rating: * * *

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#BadlapurBoys(Hindi) Rating: * ½ An old-fashioned appropriation. Attempted sports-movie but without minus the requisite adrenaline pull. More social than sporting. #KarrmMovies #ShaileshVerma #KishoreShahane #NishanNaniah #SaranyaMohan #AnnuKapoor

 

#Main aur Mr Right(Hindi)Rating: * ½  A silly search for a mirage that never is, was or can be,  a bunch of ‘friends’ with dysfunctional attitudes and a director that doesn’t know when or what to cut out –highlights this pitiable rom-con that is only bearable because of Barun Sobti’s nifty en-treatment. #MadMidaasFilms #AdeebRais #AseemRais #PoojaGujral #RaindropMedia #BarunSobti #ShenazTreasurywala

 

#Jessabelle(English/Horror) Rating: * * KevinGreutert’s supernatural thriller trades on voodoo, secrets, dark forebodings and ominous messages from the grave for it’s horror thrills. But it’s the strong sense of Louisiana bayou atmosphere that attracts much more than the caramelized horrors of a southern gothic melodrama. It’s mystery and suspense are fashioned around an exploitative telling that relies on outdated Cajun-country stereotypes.#RobertBenGarant #PVRPictures #KevinGreutert #PriyankaVaswani #SarahSnook #MarkWebber #DavidAndrews #JoelleCarter #AnaDeLaReguera 

 

#Best  #Babadook(English/Horror) Rating: * * * It plays on your senses and plagues your mind. Involving , inveigling and insinuating in equal measure JenniferKent’s film has all the hallmarks of a solid horror engagement. And it employs the horror staples with such efficiency and smarts that you are left reeling in it’s horrifying aftermath. It’s  a meticulously designed and directed debut feature from the writer-director who expanded on her award-winning short, “Monster” for the purpose.  #SGNMediaworks #PVRDirectorsRare #EssieDavis #NoahWiseman #AlexHolmes #RadekLadczuk #IFCMidnight #ScreenAustralia #CausewayFilmsPresentation #SouthAustralianFilmCorp #SmokingGunProds #OneFilmsInternational 

 

#TheHobbitBattleOfTheFiveArmies(English/3D)Rating:* * * *  Peter Jackson’s final salvo is pumped-up, spectacular, exciting, and entirely rousing- everything that a stand-out epic cinematic adventure should be. No words can describe the sheer scale and magnitude of this inveiglement.  #WarnerBros #PeterJackson #AnkitAgarwal #OrlandoBloom #LukeEvans #RichardArmitage #EvangelineLily #CateBlanchett #BenedictCummerbatch #IanMcKellen

 

#Linga(Tamil/Telugu) Rating: * * Rajnikanth gets right back into the thick of action-masala-extravaganzas, following that family fronted disaster ‘Kochadaiyyan.’ He yet again performs his tried & tested tricks with age-old savoir-faire - but it’s not as enticing as yore. Age and time have worn out the magic. Boredom stalks big-time, here. #KSRavikumar #SonakshiSinha #Rajnikanth #PonKumaran #AnushkaShetty #ARRahman #RRathnavelu  #ErosInternational #RocklineEntertainmentPvtLtd  #Munirathna #KSRavikumar #Rajnikanth

 

#Madhyamwarg(Marathi) Rating:* * A typically convoluted social drama about middle-class angst with hyperventilating hysterics and conspicuous melodrama. Too copious to curry favor. Bhojpuri superstar RaviKishen attempts to spread his burnt-out wings in regions yet unexplored.  #RaviKishen #VasanArtsMediaPvtLtd #CPIMovies #SiddharthJadhav #AnantJog #HarryFernandes #GunavantSen

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English Film Reviews

Johnson Thomas

Surprisingly Spare yet redolent horror thriller

Film: Babadook

Cast: Daniel Henshall, Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman

Director: Jennifer Kent

Rating: * * *

Runtime: 92mins

Synopsis: Six years after the violent death of her husband, Amelia (Essie Davis) is at a loss. She struggles to discipline her ‘out of control' 6 year-old, Samuel (Noah Wiseman), a son she finds impossible to love. Samuel's dreams are plagued by a monster he believes is coming to kill them both. When a disturbing storybook called ‘The Babadook' turns up at their house, Samuel is convinced that the Babadook is the creature he's been dreaming about. His hallucinations spiral out of control, he becomes more unpredictable and violent. Amelia, genuinely frightened by her son's behavior, is forced to medicate him. But when Amelia begins to see glimpses of a sinister presence all around her, it slowly dawns on her that the thing Samuel has been warning her about may be real went into “The Babadook” under a kind of misapprehension.

Review:

This debut feature written and directed by Australian filmmaker Jennifer Kent, is an effectively creepy, old-school Australian psychodrama that uses  a dark children's picture book as a reference point for it’s package of psycho-scares. The Book mysteriously finds its way onto a shelf in the house where Amelia (Essie Davis) and her soon-to-be-7-year-old, Samuel (Noah Wiseman), live.

The chills start creeping in right from the opening sequence itself-  a nightmare scene in which Amelia( Essie Davis) is being rushed to the hospital leading up to a tragedy that has immense impact on the lives left behind. The urgency is over but the grief and helplessness is immeasurable. The child she delivered is now in early elementary school and more than just a handful. The mother is run ragged trying to keep up. No sleep and precious little rest. She’s traumatized from all fronts. Samuel (the cherub-faced Noah Wiseman, giving a terrific performance) spends most of his  time playing games and concocting crude weapons with which to protect himself and his mum from imaginary enemies, and he’s at work on this project day and night, loudly. He barely sleeps and when he decides to do so, he needs his mother’s comforting and protective arms around him. So he wakes her up from her fitful sleep and cuts into her rest-time big time.  When his vigilance isn’t literally wreaking havoc on the small house within which he and Amelia live in near-isolation, Sam’s unwittingly  terrorizes his fellow schoolmates and even reaches a point where he is responsible for the near death pf his cousin, the daughter of Amelia’s sister Claire, whose patience with the increasingly frazzled Amelia is wearing thin. The situation’s a nasty mess, and Amelia appears to be at her wit’s end…

 “The Babadook” uses all the familiar tricks but does them with a distinctiveness that makes it all appear new. Kent uses the familiar to spin-out a darkened approbation from our collective consciousness about classic tales. Gradually, a series of suggestive sequences lends chilling credibility to the increasing fear quotient. old-fashioned sound effects, squeaky doors, night-time wanderings add substance to the narrative’s suggestive leanings. This is an experience that creditably rivals James Wan’s recent works(Insidious, The Conjuring) and has at it’s core two stunningly evocative and mesmerizing performances from the lead players – Essie Davis as the hurried and harried mother who appears to be at the end of her tether and the son played by Noah Wiseman, the bundle of irrepressible energy that wears her out ragged. This is definitely one horror movie worth watching!

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